Project description
A closer look at the narratives of falling cities
Throughout history, the fall of cities has been recorded and narrated as a point of great disturbance and concern. Recently the destruction of ancient cities during the war in Syria attracted global attention. Ancient and biblical sources have lamented the fall of cities in different genres of writing, and have been used to create historiographical thresholds. The EU-funded CITYFALL project will study the role of these narratives in the shaping of political and cultural identities across Europe during the Middle Ages. Taking the reconquest of Acre in 1291 as a starting point, the project will examine texts written around 1300. Specifically, it will review the crucial role these narratives played as they migrated from the Eastern Mediterranean into medieval Europe.
Objective
The fall of a city captivates the imagination, provokes intense emotional reactions and is often used to draw a line in historical narratives. The global attention and media coverage which the destruction of Mosul, Aleppo, or Palmyra have attracted during the ongoing war in Syria demonstrates the continuing power of the motif. Since antiquity the fall of cities has been lamented in different genres of writing and used to create historiographical thresholds. Prominent examples include biblical cities such as Jericho, Babylon or Jerusalem and ancient cities such as Troy, Carthage or Rome.
This project aims to understand the role these ancient and biblical narratives played in the shaping of medieval political and cultural identities across transalpine Europe, reassessing the underestimated yet crucial role these biblical and ancient narratives played as they migrated into medieval Europe. Despite an increased interest in city laments in recent scholarship these studies remain mostly anchored in their original ancient or mediterranean contexts. The reception of these traditions in Western and Central Europe and most importantly the German lands remains unexplored, despite the fact that for over a thousand years, recourse to fallen cities provided the most inuential foil for narratives of political authority and legitimacy and also to make sense of present political occurrences such as the re-conquest of the city of Acre – the last outpost of the crusaders in the Eastern Mediterranen – to the Mamluks in 1291.
Using the fall of Acre as a medieval starting point I will take a synchronous and daichronous look at medieval texts written between late 11th and the early 14th century to examine 1) which ancient textual traditions of lament were available for medieval writers 2) how were they used to make sense of the present by re-purposing the past and 3) how medieval identities were constructed and contemporary concerns of political and cultural belonging negotiated.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history ancient history
- humanities history and archaeology history medieval history
- humanities languages and literature literature studies literary genres
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3012 Bern
Switzerland
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